The next time you find yourself using Microsoft or Facebook or Apple (...) products, ask yourself if there isn't an open source alternative - and if there is, go check it out. Most commercial software has readily available alternatives that were developed in the open source community.

If you talk to somebody about using open source products, they'll usually start talking about the different meanings of the word 'free'; e.g. free as in beer, free as in freedom, etc. At the same time, many will try to push products on you with licenses written by lawyers which dictate exactly what you can and cannot do with your 'free as in freedom' software. [I always found this amusing.]

But I think they are all missing the point. I develop and use open source software - and my reasons for using it have very little to do with 'free'; and have everything to do with the fact that open source is developed by definition in an environment that is open and transparent. I know a bit about software, and I also know that you can bury manipulative and deceptive algorithms inside software in order to control and influence the software "users". During my years of employment in the industry, I've been asked to create software with manipulative and deceptive intentions, and I've also been affected by manipulative and deceptive algorithms which were created by other companies to stifle competition by the very companies I worked for. You don't see these algorithms because they are tucked away behind a curtain and a veil of secrecy. But let's summarise: software tends to embody within itself the values and motives of the organisations who create it, both good and bad.

So I use open source software because ultimately it is an ethical and "trust" decision. I tend to put more trust into things which are open and transparent and developed by people and organisations who embody those values than things which are closed and manipulative and developed by people and organisations that embody those values.